Department of Physics Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
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131 BARYON Q-BALLS: A NEW FORM OF MATTER? STEPHEN B. SELIPSKY Department of Physics Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 Abstract Hadronic effective field theories describing ordinary nuclei also contain ·Q-Ba.11 solu tions which can describe a new state of matter, "baryon matter" . Baryon matter is stable in very small chunks as well as in stellar-sized objects, since it is held together by the strong force instead of just gravity. Larger chunks, "Q-Stars" , in which gravity is impor A tant, model neutron stars. wide variety of Q-Star models, a.II consistent with known nuclear physics, allow compact objects to have masses much larger, or rotation periods much shorter, than is conventionally believed possible. Smaller chunks of nuclear density baryon matter could also be astrophysically important components of the universe, a.nd at late times would have many properties similar to those of strange matter chunks. 132 1. Introduction There are many surprising possibilities lurking in the non- perturbative sector of field theories. Here we add to the body of work on this topic, presenting the possibility of a new state of matter which a.rises from the discovery of solutions to effective field theo ries describing among other things ordinary nuclei. Effective field theories of interacting baryons and mesons ha.ve successfully reproduced measured properties of nuclei a.s wella.s 1 6 results of scattering experiments -3). We have found4- ) non-topological classical solu tions to such theories: fermion Q-Balls, or Q-Sta.rs in the ca.se where their self-gravity is important and gravitational effects are included. Q here stands for the conserved charge (baryon number) which stabilizes the matter against decay. The properties of such a state of baryon matter can be different from and essentially independent of the characteristics of ordinary nuclei studied in the laboratory. In particular, neutron stars may have a large binding energy per nucleon, hundreds of MeV, due mainly to nuclear forces, and may be 7 8 more massive or able to rotate fa.st.er than is suggested by currently accepted limits. ' ) 1 In addition, chunks of baryon matter, varying in size from 10- 2cm to several kilometers, may also exist. Structural characteristics are fairly insensitive to the effective field theory used; classes of theories give the same equation of state. 2. Constructing Solutions There is a simple graphical method for finding large baryon-number solutions. Con sider a. Lagrangian for a baryon 1jJ intera.cting with a. sca.la.r a.nd vector field: (2.1) 1 It is a good a.pproxima.tion to neglect the dynamics of the vector field ), and fora many fermion system we can make the Thomas-Fermi approximation (dm/dr � m2) to get a Fe rmi sea of baryons described by a constant chemical potential EF and a Fermi momen 6 tum kF slowly varying in space. The identity gives the cla.ssica.l (i}ij;) = -(8Pv, /8m) ) 133 equation of motion (2.2) where P.p is the pressure of the baryons. This is equivalent to Newton's ma for a. F = · mechanical 'particle' a.t 'position' a a.t 'time' r moving in a potential Veff = P.p - U, with 'friction' from the (2/r)&a/&r term negligible for large r. The Q-Ball solution occurs when a rolls between degenrra.t.r maxima of V.Jf, where one of the maxima is the vacuum and the height. of I.he other is tuned by varying The Ep. a fieldstarts at a value a inside at r = 0, close to the top of t he first hill, and stays near I.hat value out to a. large radius (since the I.op of the hill is flat) before quickly rolling to the vacuum. The large baryon number Q-Ba.ll thus has a flat interior, a radius which is a free para.meter, and a thin surface (of ordrr the scalar Compton wavelength). The density is determined by algebraic equations for and ainsideo requiring degenerate maxima.: Ep Ve ff = 0 and &V,JJ/&a = 0. Q-Ba.11 must still have total energy E QmN in order to A < be bound. Further details can be found in Refs. 6 and 9. 3. Application We can apply this construction quite generally, for instance to Wa.lecka's Quantum 1 Hadro-Dynamics ), in which the proton and neutron a.re fermion fields 1/'i whose effective mass is m(a) = g,a, with the free-particle g8a0. The scalar field has a quadratic mN = potential U = m;(a - a0 )2, and the vector field is the w particle. This theory's large ! baryon number Q-Ball corresponds to infinite symmetric nuclear matter when N = Z. The small baryon number solutions (nuclei) depend on the friction term in eq. (2.2); the rolling starts above P.p - U = 0 and friction brings a to rest at the vacuum value where m = mN. Fig. 1 translates the Walecka. solutions into this framework. Infinite nuclear matter is desta.bilizrd by Coulomb forces. In fact, neutrons, protons, and electrons coexist in ,8-decay equilibrium, allowing local charge neutrality: kp,1, = kF,e 134 ->e.... •ca .... , / ' . · 0.2 , ' /·�- ··.�l ' �� . ' u. ·. · b . � ' ... " 01 · ."::::�' \ I \ ' I ' ' I � ' 2 I r., \ Q�� 0.0 -0.1 a.• o.• o.• -0.2'1 0.25 0.5 0.715 m/m• m/m. 1. Figure Graphical representation of Q-Balls in a nuclear theory. U(u) (dots) is the scalar field potential, is the baryon pressure, and U is the effective potential that 'rolls' in, P.p P.µ - u starting at r = 0 (marked by crosses). Figure 2. Potentials U (solid lines) given in Refs. 1 and 2. and E:F n E:F E:F e With a baryon pressure function reflecting this, a large baryon , ,p , · = + number Q-Ba.11 does not exist in Wa.lecka.'s theory, so strong gravity for stellar sized objects is the only possibility. However we a.re still free to choose other potentials. In an effective field theorythe potential and the coupling m(a) a.re in genera.I nonrenormaliza.ble, subject only to the symmetry of the underlying theory, and should either be fit fromexperiment (a la Walecka) or derived from the underlying theory (QCD). Then m and U have quantum corrections included in their definitions. Bogut.a., Strocker, and others have found many models with renorma.liza.hle potentia.ls which reproduce known hulk properties of nuclear matter\ Fig. 2 shows these and Wa.lecka.'s potentials; the region 'a.-b-c-d'is the only pa.rt relevant for nuclear data, and U is not constrained elsewhere, allowing infinitely many altered potentials (e.g. dotted lines) that do give la.rge baryon number Q-Balls. Only the (currently unmeasurable) point determines Q-Ball hulk properties, and the rest of U ' f ' affects only the thin surface. Iu this way we can have stable macroscopic chunks of high density baryon matter, of any size above where surface dfPcts become important. Qbulk To fix point 'f' and the properties of nn1tron stars, experiments on baryon matter chunks would be necessary. 135 The simple 'chiral' Q-Ball case in which the bulk-phase nucleon mass m(ainside) = 0, has features genetic to more complicated models (which have also been solved). The equation of state9) for a chiral Q-Star (neglecting the electron mass and neutron-proton mass difference) depends only on the vector repulsion strength and Uo = U (a inside): 3/0 E-3P-4Uo + o:v (E-P-2Uo) -=0, (3.1) 2 112 7r to the strong forces, so charge with /mv ) 3 / . Only the nucleons couple O:v = (gv separation results in the surface. Structure calculations may neglect these details since the surface width is about 10-20 times sma.ller than the stellar radius, but the electrostatic gap means that small Q-Balls will not absorb ordinary matter and Q-Stars can support a crust of degenerate ordinary matter below neutron drip densities. Since Q-Balls are a bulk phase with an equation of state\ gravity can be included simply by integrating the Oppenheimer-Volkoffequations. On dimensional grounds, when GM/R 1 a Q-Star has radius R � mvw0'2 � 100 km and mass M � m;1a02 10 M0, � � where IOOMeV is the vacuum val ue of Integrating the Oppenheimer-Volkolf a0 � a. equations for eq. (3.1) gives the solid lines in Fig. 3. We also show for comparison (dashed lines) two neutron sta.r models (pion condensation and Walecka's) which are respectively among the least stiff a.nd most stiff of conventional neutron star models. In conventional models the stellar radius decreases as the mass and baryon number increase, while Q-Balls have M and Q giving the generic curlique. ex R3, Both stellar radius a.nd mass increase as the unknown Uo decreases, allowing a large upper limit for the neutron star mass if Uo is small. However eq. (3.1) is only valid at densities high enough for the nuclear interactions to domina.te. There seem to be no experimental constraints on the equation of st.ate of a large nvmber of baryons above white dwarf densities 0 0gm cm3 which we will take as the lowest permissible ( I / ), U0 < 1 val ue. Using (3.1) down to density Uo evades the theoretical Rhoades-Ruffini limit, 3.2M8, which assumes some conventiona.l <"qna.tion of st.ate below a density ta.ken to be about [0 136 x trI ] 10 20 30 •o R(km) 3.